Owl Tag
by Ember Nickel
Summary: Just because Charlie has left Hogwarts to study in Romania doesn't mean that he'll ever stop being Oliver's friend. Or that Oliver will ever stop trying to pick his brains about Quidditch. Well, nothing is ever going to stop Oliver from picking people's brains about Quidditch. (GenEx 2016 for Maitimiel.)


For Maitimiel, who suggested something about Oliver writing to Charlie to talk, or Charlie trying to deal with Oliver's Quidditch obsession. I hope you enjoy!

This headcanon version of Charlie's age comes from Philip Legge's theorizing on HP Lexicon: "Quidditch Through the (Weasleys') Ages or, The Unusual Career of Charles Weasley". Some slight creative liberties have been taken with canon as regards the laden velocity of European owls, those are my own.

Thanks so much to amyfortuna for betaing!

* * *

 _Received August 1991_

Dear Charlie,

Sorry I haven't written sooner, it's been a bit rubbish. Nothing's the same without you around. No matter how I try, I can't tell if anyone's listening to me, or if this really is the best any of us can do.

Maybe the twins have already told you how "this" started, with the showing against Ravenclaw last winter. The only good news was that their Seeker put us out of our misery quickly so they didn't have time to run up the score, which can't be said for the match against Slytherin last month. We'd have come bottom of the table but Hufflepuff were somehow worse. Maybe one of their Beaters had scrofungulus.

Anyway, exams are over so I'm looking forward to going home. Dad says he wants to visit Muggle Dublin this year but I don't think he knows how to make change or drive a car, so maybe we'll just stay put. Hope you're not getting eaten!

Sincerely,  
Oliver

—

 _Received September 1991_

Dear Oliver,

Thanks for writing! Work is busy but I love it. All week my bosses have been trying to measure steam output to see if we can detect any signs of illness. As you can guess, this is an imprecise magic best done from very far off, but they let me go out on site at least and not just sit back to poke at the Arithmancy. (Which is good, because I don't really know how yet.)

Take it easy and don't worry about Quidditch, certainly not during the summer, and particularly so if you're enjoying Muggle tourism. (I hope this owl doesn't interrupt you somewhere the locals aren't expecting birds to deliver mail.)

Have a good one!  
-Charlie

—

 _Received October 1991_

Dear Charlie,

Don't worry about the owl! I was up early in the morning anyway and grabbed the mail, and now I'm back at Hogwarts they should be able to stay undercover. (Do the same owls fly all the way from Romania, or do they have to transfer?)

I'm scared about the team this year. What with Kerry having left school and Andraste worrying about NEWTs all the time, we'll need some new Chasers, and I'm not sure what to say to get Ian to come back as Seeker. Maybe your brothers can find some funny jokes to keep him happy? He just doesn't take it seriously. I even asked Percy whether he'd come out for tryouts but he looked at me like I'd swallowed the wrong potion or something. What can I say, flying comes naturally to your family, and I'm desperate!

Apprehensively,  
Oliver

 _Received November 1991_

Dear Charlie,

Well, I reckon things could have gone better around here, but could have gone far worse too. Alicia Spinnet, who substituted for Kerry during the Ravenclaw game last year, showed up again for Chaser tryouts and she's got a lot of raw ability. Once she's drilled some more on the fundamentals as part of a formation, I think she'll be fine. Then there's Katie Bell, a second-year who showed up. I can't say she recruited quite as many friends as Andraste, but at least she doesn't have so many exams to be worrying about.

As far as Seekers go, though, I don't know who can stay on a broom with two hands much less reach out with one. Maybe you just set the standards too high! I guess I'll go try to butter up Ian and see if he thinks showing up to practice is more interesting than whoever it is he's found to snog this week, which sounds about as likely as...well, any other part of this job, really. You never said it would be easy!

Onward!  
-Oliver

 _Received December 1991_

Dear Charlie,

So. Some news around here, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

The first thing you should know is that Harry Potter started school this year. You know, boy who lived, lightning-bolt scar (it's really true, by the way!) and all that. Anyway, he got sorted into Gryffindor, and we were all very proud. And then...we kind of just ignored it. I mean, it's one thing to know where you were when the war ended, another to try not to stare at the ickle firstie doing homework across the common room.

Anyway, I'd have kept on trying to ignore him, if it hadn't been for McGonagall. She pulled me out of class one day, and told me that Potter would be able to be our Seeker for this year! No offense, but the kid really is a natural. (Although he'd never heard of Quidditch before showing up here. The Harry Potter, raised by Muggles, really?) Still, I was so excited once I saw him fly, I couldn't sleep.

And then I really started losing sleep, because wasn't there supposed to be a rule against having first-years play? And didn't that mean we're, technically, cheating? It wouldn't be worth it to win that way, would it? Unless there was never any kind of rule, and it was really just an unofficial precedent that no, ickle firsties are never fast enough to make it and if some upstarts comes along bragging about how they're the next big thing, we have reasons to roll our eyes.

So between drawing up tactics I actually spent some time in the library, of all places, poking around through Hogwarts: A History to see if I could find anything. It wasn't like I could ask McGonagall about it. Finally Percy ran into me, and after learning why I was in the library, told me there was a copy of An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe back in the dorm for his History of Magic class all along. Go figure.

Turns out Tesni Maddox was a Muggle-born first-year Seeker for Ravenclaw about a hundred years ago, but concentrated so hard on flying that she didn't practice her spellwork enough, and failed her final exams. Ever since then the Heads of Houses have agreed to make first-years focus on school first, pureblood and Muggle-born alike. So does McGonagall figure that defeating You-Know-Who is all the magic one kid really needs to learn?

I hope so. If we can't play fair, what's the point in playing at all?

All the best,  
Oliver

 _Received January 1992_

Dear Charlie,

Bad news: Slytherin actually tried to protest against the results of Potter's first game.

Good news: it wasn't about his eligibility, but whether a Snitch catch via almost choking on it counts.

Hilarious news: I'm sure that's not anywhere on the list of fouls.

Gleefully,  
Oliver

—

 _Received February 1992_

Dear Oliver,

Hullo! Yes, of course the same owls fly all the way from Romania, they're very gifted and magical birds! But they probably have to recuperate for days in the Owlery, poor things. I miss that place, all the birds swooping in and out. Wasn't a bad room to drop by on a broom, although probably not too fun if you wanted to sit and have a think.

If you're looking for advice, well, I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of tactics at this point in time. You won't like it, but try and keep yourself moving forward when it comes to schoolwork, and everything else will fall into place. Is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher any good? Has Nick grossed out the first-years yet? How many points have the twins lost (...gained?)

Keep me posted!  
-Charlie

—

 _Received April 1992_

Dear Charlie,

Defense Against the Dark Arts: not really, it's Quirrell, who I remember seeing around before. Did you ever take Muggle Studies from him? Mostly we read and write long essays getting ready for theoreticals, but he's a fair sight better than Thigglethwaite ever was. At least this bloke hasn't asked the portraits to give guest lectures about the dangers of encountering wyverns or anything.

The first-years: well, I think they can handle Nick, like I said, they put up with Potter and his scar and everything! There's one poor chap who keeps forgetting the password and Nick always yells at the Fat Lady to let him in. Other than that, maybe the Bloody Baron still spooks them, but I don't think our ghost is going to worry them.

Your brothers: probably the less I know about them, the better.

Hufflepuff: by the time it was over, it was getting pretty late in the afternoon! You're imagining a marathon game, right? Both sides searching for the Snitch while goal after goal piles up? Wrong: they decided to start late for some reason, and Potter beat them in five minutes! Phenomenal stuff.

I don't want to say too much, feels like jinxing it, but it feels like things are coming together.

Hopefully,  
Oliver

 _Received May 1992_

Dear Charlie,

I had a dream that we were flying together, over the hoops and towers, late at night. I don't remember when it was, in the dream—I feel like Harry was there already? But so were you somehow, like, it was this year and you'd never left? I wanted you to be in charge, I didn't want to be responsible when we messed up and lost, and then McGonagall said she wanted to see me, and I was falling...

Percy says it's just exam stress getting to me, and I ought to write it down and forget about it. But I figure as long as I've gone to the trouble of writing it, I might as well send it somewhere. Don't feel like you need to write back right away, or at all. Just getting it off my chest.

Sincerely,  
Oliver

—

 _Received May 1992_

Dear Oliver,

It's okay! My dad used to say that years after leaving Hogwarts he'd wake up terrified that he'd missed McGonagall's Transfiguration class. Just a dream, can't hurt you. Absolutely not based on reality at all, because I definitely wasn't around Hogwarts last month in any way and had no ability to influence proceedings there.

The exams will be over in no time! Make sure you're stocked up on Chocolate Frogs for afterwards, they can't hurt.

Best of luck,  
Charlie

—

 _Received July 1992_

Dear Charlie,

Excellent advice on the Chocolate Frogs. I had plenty to scarf down after finally making it through the Herbology theoretical. I'm hoping I wrote enough, and very glad to be done either way. Professor Sprout prepared us well, it just felt like a very short test.

Of course, that meant I didn't have anything to save for the after-party—such as it was. Turns out the Ravenclaw game wasn't as straightforward as we'd hoped. Potter almost got himself killed...well, I'm not sure what he was doing. Rumor has it that he followed Professor Quirrell into an off-limits corridor, and almost got killed by a troll? Sounds like Quirrell got the worst of it (so that's another Defense professor we're going to need next year, if you're counting. Think I'll drop it for NEWTs). But then your little brother, Ron, and their friend Hermione Granger were able to find a back way out of the corridor and get help for Potter. Apparently Ron is very good at chess.

Don't quote me, nobody seems to be quite sure of the details. All we know for certain is that Potter was in no shape to play against Ravenclaw, and the rest of Gryffindor was more interested in elaborating on rumors than substituting in. So we played six on seven, which was an embarrassment. Fortunately, the twins brought loads of pumpkin juice for drowning our sorrows, at least until I "remembered" I had some last-minute packing to do and could get away.

At least they shouldn't be able to ruin the end-of-term feast, right?  
-Oliver

—

 _Received September 1992_

Dear Oliver,

Hope you're enjoying summer! I've been rounding up owls left and right here. Sitting my N.E.W.T.-equivalences was a bit of an adventure, I had to take a Portkey to the Ministry and got in a bit carpet-lagged, but made it through in time to treat hippogriffs with the proper respect, subdue tebos, etc. I figured I probably got extra credit for explaining how to distinguish among subfamilies of Chimaeras by which dragon tails they resemble, but I didn't find out until just a few days ago, when I finally got my results back. The Ministry could do with some faster owls! I suppose they must be busy running the country or being all rah-rah England and trying very hard to get excited about that, it must take a lot out of them.

Anyway, it's getting warm here, so my boss figures it's almost the Vipertooths' mating season. They shouldn't need any encouragement to breed (and too much interference is against the Warlocks' Convention anyway), but their numbers have been sparse at other refuges around the world so we hope it's not a sign they're becoming endangered.

Best,  
Charlie

—

 _Received October 1992_

Dear Charlie,

Well, that was a mental image I didn't need. Thanks for nothing.

I hope you don't think I'm competing with you by trying to put my own stamp on the team. I've decided to forgo tryouts this year, we have a strong enough core that I think with more experience practicing together we'll be able to build on our past success, rather than open the door to people who might just flake out after a month or so. With a new training schedule we should be able to succeed, so long as everyone stays healthy.

My OWL results came back on time, I did well in Charms, so hopefully I'll be able to make these formations start moving on their own. Of course, there's no substitute for drawing them up right to begin with!

Take care,  
Oliver

 _Received November 1992_

Dear Charlie,

The nerve! Not only did the Slytherins book the pitch when we were supposed to have reserved it, but they're all flying new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones! I don't know how we'll compete.

Before you ask, the new Defense professor is someone I've actually sort of heard of: Gilderoy Lockhart, my dad's read a bunch of his books. I already dropped it, though, I figure the odds we'll actually learn something consistent and useful in that class over the next two years isn't high enough to be worth the risk.

Your sister isn't scared of Nick at all. Actually, not only can she handle him, he's been drifting off to do his own thing at breakfast more and more these days. I'd say he's not himself, but does that even mean anything to a ghost?

Sincerely,  
Oliver

 _Received January 1993_

Dear Charlie,

One step forward, one step back. We beat Slytherin, but not without a cost—Potter's arm is in a bad way. You're probably imagining all kinds of unlucky accidents. He could have ploughed into a goalpost by accident, or got fouled by one of those enormous Beaters who's twice his size, or fallen off his broom and crashed, or just had a Bludger deliberately hit at him by one of the blokes flying those ridiculous Nimbus 2001s. It wasn't anything appropriate for Quidditch like that, though.

One of the Bludgers—just one!—had a mind of its own. I know that's what I say about Fred at his best sometimes, like he's an agent of chaos pursuing the opposition, but this was literally one of the balls going after Potter and Potter alone. Of course it didn't slow him down, because he knows how to keep his mind on the game and all that, so eventually we held them off. The Bludger carried on and gave him a nasty injury, though.

And then Professor Lockhart thought he'd be able to patch it up, but left Potter worse off than he began. So he's in the hospital wing yet again! Someone's out to get us. McGonagall's promised she's looking into it, we can't be having with this kind of partiality, but really...

Best,  
Oliver

—

 _Received February 1993_

Dear Oliver,

Don't let the Slytherins get you down! I've said all along, it's not the cut of the broom, it's the rider on it. Unless Fred and George have embezzled several Galleons each (in which case you really ought to report them to McGonagall), they're not going to be flying anything fancier than what I had, but I don't recall you ever complaining about our old Cleansweep Fives.

I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say we think our female Vipertooth population is healthy and fertile, and that next summer there shouldn't be anything stopping them from laying eggs. The males might present a thornier issue. One of them has been flying near to the territory that's been allocated for the Short-Snouts, so maybe we'll get some hybrids. (The area we need to allot per individual is, of course, enormous! Particularly when there's more than one breed involved.)

Sincerely,  
Charlie

—

 _Received April 1993_

Dear Charlie,

Everything's going from bad to worse around here. I'm not sure what your brothers have told you, but there've been attacks on students. A couple have been Petrified. And messages linking it to the "Chamber of Secrets" and the "Heir of Slytherin."

The Minister of rubbish ideas, Lockhart himself, has decided to add to everyone's frustration by arranging a Valentine's Day party complete with telegram-delivering dwarves. Fortunately nobody decided to track me down, I think I'd rather be Petrified.

Peeved,  
Oliver

 _Received May 1993_

Dear Charlie,

More Petrified students. One from my year—Penelope Clearwater, a clever Ravenclaw prefect—and a Gryffindor second-year. They say the monster is targeting Muggle-borns, but it could all be dumb luck. Does it matter?

But apparently, someone thinks that cancelling Quidditch will keep us safe. As if we're any better off inside! Really, I haven't heard of any monsters Petrifying students out on the grounds.

So there we go, an entire season down the drain because our qualified Defense professor, I mean esteemed faculty, can't figure out what's going on. Guess I'll have to find my own copy of An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe to see if there's any precedent for something like this. I don't think Percy wants to let me borrow his, he's really upset about the latest attacks.

Dismally,  
Oliver

 _Received June 1993_

Dear Charlie,

All is well here. The Petrified students have been cured, and whatever was attacking them has been appeased. Although nobody's exactly sure what's going on, maybe they tried to feed Lockhart's brain to it but I don't think that could have been very nourishing.

Because of all the upheaval, exams have been cancelled, which is kind of a shame because I was putting off Herbology till the last minute and hoping a good score on the final could haul my average up. Oh well, could be worse.

Best,  
Oliver

—

 _Received July 1993_

Dear Oliver,

Hang in there! Dwarfs can be finicky beings, but just remember you're bigger than they are and there's nothing they can really do to hurt you. Unless you're Professor Bloom, the idiot we had for Defense Against the Dark Arts my first year who thought we'd be likely to get in bar fights with dwarfs and wasted a unit teaching us self-defense the Muggle way. I mean, I guess my dad would have thought she was useful, but I don't think anyone else did. Don't worry, Lockhart too will pass (most of the students).

I don't believe in any kind of legends about an heir of Slytherin, sounds like something pureblood fanatics would have made up in the wars to claim some kind of honor. Besides, any population mage could tell you that a bloke who lived a thousand years ago almost certainly either had all his descendants die out, or has loads and loads running around and potentially setting monsters on people, if that's any consolation.

Hang in there,  
Charlie

—

 _Received October 1993_

Dear Charlie,

Well, writing from Hogwarts again. Seventh year, and while I'm hoping to go out on a high, it doesn't really feel much like Hogwarts at the moment. The Ministry has posted Dementors here, so they trust us about as much as they do prisoners, I guess. They even searched the Hogwarts Express on the way in, made us all feel hopeless. If they actually did anything to keep us safe then maybe it would be worth it, but Wizengamot's still out, I guess.

Percy's head boy so I don't see much of him around the dorms these days. Penny Clearwater is the Head Girl, but I'll let Percy fill you in on her if he hasn't yet!

I found Whisp's "Beating the Bludgers" over the summer so I've been browsing through that for a bit of tactical inspiration. I think it's a little out of date, but probably still useful at this level.

Sincerely,  
Oliver

 _Received November 1993_

Dear Charlie,

Practice is underway, finally, and this season it looks like we'll have the pitch to ourselves! I did have to arrange for lots of early-morning practice time, but at least this way we should be able to avoid any unpleasant surprises. I think it'll be important to get basic fitness up to speed first, and then hopefully we'll be able to bounce back from any minor injuries sustained over the season, because once again it doesn't look like substitutes are going to be a thing.

Not that we should need them. No disrespect intended, of course, but all things considered these really are the finest teammates I've played with. All we need is a chance or three, over the course of the year. It shouldn't be that much to ask.

I keep hoping, anyway. It's the least I can do, with me on this side of the walls and the creatures that suck all the happiness away stuck outside.

Till next time,  
Oliver

 _Received December 1993_

Dear Charlie,

I'm an idiot. A greedy, fate-tempting, idiot, and I'm not sure how long this will take to get to you, so maybe you'll be the last to know, but that's fine because everyone else does.

We were supposed to play Slytherin, but their Seeker claimed he'd been hurt last month, so he's still malingering and at the last minute, they made us play Hufflepuff. If anything, it's Hufflepuff who were at a disadvantage by being forced onto the pitch before they were ready, so I can't even complain about that, even though all our tactical preparation went out the window.

Not to mention, the weather was terrible, the worst I've seen it since that game against Ravenclaw my fourth year. Maybe worse than that. Again, though, we held our own through that, it got to us both equally.

And then the Dementors took the field. I was already nervous, of course, but they didn't affect me like they had on the train. I was still trying to focus on strategy, and maybe that kept my mind busy enough. It was dark enough already that dozens of shroudy types didn't make much difference, for the most part.

They did a number on Potter, though. He fell off his broom. Terrible misplay, but, all the same, could have happened to anyone. The Hufflepuff captain didn't miss a beat and snagged the Snitch moments later, I'd have expected no less of him, but all the same, curse our luck.

And then minutes later the twins and everyone can carry on, laughing and joking and going to check on Harry to make sure he's okay (Dumbledore did some tricky magic to break his fall, he didn't seem happy that the Dementors got this far, though). Even the Hufflepuffs are mensches about it, bending over backwards and offering us a rematch. Of course that wouldn't be sporting, anyone can get injured on any day.

It just had to be us. And I just can't sleep.

-Oliver

—

 _Received January 1994_

Dear Oliver,

Dementors? At Hogwarts? That's completely unreasonable. The British Ministry is out of line if they think they can use soul-sucking monsters to keep you under their thumb. You're surely of age by now, aren't you? You ought to write to the Ministry yourself and tell them where they can shove it. I'd say they're probably too stuck-in-their-ways to listen to you. But then again, if they can change their tune quickly enough to do something like this right now when there's never been any precedent before, maybe there's a first time for everything.

Otherwise, if you can find a way to finish your education outside of Hogwarts—nobody's going to judge you for leaving a school surrounded by Dementors, either. Sure, it's not the most common path, but I'd be remiss not to bring it up.

Solidarity,  
Charlie

—

 _Received February 1994_

Dear Charlie,

Come off it, I can't leave Hogwarts. I'm not as focused as you, I'd fall behind if I was studying somewhere else. (How did you even keep up as it was, if the owl delay is this terrible?) More importantly, I've got a season to finish out!

Potter's somehow gotten a new broom to replace his old busted one. A brand new Firebolt! But McGonagall's being incredibly paranoid about it and stripping it down for jinxes, so he's still practicing on the school brooms. I know, it doesn't matter, but somehow knowing there's a brilliant racing broom locked away in the tower makes it sting more than never knowing about it at all.

Bitterly,  
Oliver

 _Received March 1994_

Dear Charlie,

Well, we're right back in this! A convincing win against Ravenclaw, helped only just a little by the Firebolt. (Even Hooch thinks it's interesting, if not decisively so.)

Speaking of Hooch, she told me after the game that she would send a Pensieve memory to a scout from the BIQL. I'm very grateful, both that they'll get to see a good performance and also that she waited until afterwards to tell me. I'm not sure how well I would have done knowing that that was hanging over me. (Or did she also go ahead and send an image of that miserable Hufflepuff game without telling me, to give a more balanced evaluation?)

Best,  
Oliver

 _Received April 1994_

Dear Charlie,

Another long practice in the books. I'm almost too exhausted to stay on a broom any longer, but there's enough feeling in my fingers to write, and I'm too keyed up to sleep so here we are. (Percy, of course, is still revising his Transfiguration essay. What's new.)

The team is tired, too, and I can only hope they've just committed everything to muscle memory and aren't tired of me. Given the choice, I'm more afraid of someone screwing up and forgetting the goal difference than I am of them resenting me for yelling at them one more time. It's hard enough to make friends my own age that I don't particularly care about my popularity among the fifth-years.

So I guess this is just to say thank you, for taking me under your wing all those years ago. For answering my owls, no matter how long it takes or no matter how many exciting things you've got to do. No matter how many clipboards I charm, you'll always be my first captain.

-Oliver

—

 _Received April 1994_

Dear Oliver,

I hope this gets to you before the championship—I've sent it a bit early, because some of the owls here are really slow. Plus I do get a backlog of letters sometimes, and I'm sorry for that. I know this might come as a bit of a shock considering the circumstances of our first (and second and twelfth and hundredth) meeting, but there's only so much Quidditch that even I can read about before I go mental!

That doesn't mean I don't want to hear from you, though. To be honest, these days I don't care so much about sport as I care about how you care about it—how it brings out the best in you, how Fred and George look up to you (very deep down). As long as you have news to share with an old geezer like me, I'll keep writing back, no matter how long it takes!

I hope you're able to relax and take pride in your accomplishments, win or lose. And I hope you're able to enjoy the last few months of Hogwarts off the pitch.

But seriously, good luck.

Go Lions,  
Charlie


End file.
